SCIENCE IN ACTION:
Glossary
| Cryptic Species: Species which are clearly different based on their genes, but are difficult to distinguish based on physical characteristics | |
| Cucurbit: A plant in the cucumber family, including the tropical cucumber vines we are studying |  |
| Echolocation: The process of determining the location of an object (in this case fruit) by bouncing sound waves off of it |  |
| Genetic Analysis: An informative portion of the genes of each fly are sequenced, and differences in the DNA can show if two flies belong to different species | |
| Genus: The level of classification one step above species. Each scientific species name includes the genus name followed by a unique species name. | |
| Host Taxa: The species or group of plant the flies are found living on/in | |
| Host Tissue: The part of the plant (male flowers, female flowers, seeds, etc.) the flies are found living on/in | |
| Hypothesis: Our hypothesis are tree-like drawings with species at the tips of the branches. Closely related species share a recent common ancestor represented by the point of the tree where the branches split. |  |
| Inflorescence: An assemblage of flowers | |
| Neotropical: The tropical regions of the Americas, found in Central and South America |  |
| Taxonomy: the naming and classification of organisms | |
| Voucher specimen: An organism preserved for future study as photographs, pressed plants, or pickled flies. |  |